In a vehicle with a fuel cell mounted thereon, at the start of running, electricity stored in a secondary battery is supplied to a driving motor which generates running torque and to auxiliary equipment of the fuel cell for starting up the fuel cell.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-289209 discloses a fuel cell system in which a secondary battery is used as a power source for a drive motor until system start-up operation is completed. While the vehicle is standing with the fuel cell system running, a target state of charge of the secondary battery is set higher than usual so that the secondary battery is charged sufficiently and the motor can be fed with electricity from the secondary battery during the subsequent system start-up.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-343401 discloses an energy output control system for a vehicle equipped with an engine and a fuel cell, which determines whether to start up the fuel cell based on distance from the present position to the destination. If the distance from the present position to the destination is shorter than a predetermined distance, it is determined not to start up the fuel cell. In this case, only the engine is used as a drive source.